Japan Carbon Steel Order Returns 90% of Peak

Japanese carbon steel order receipt increased by 16.7% to 71.03 million tonnes in 2010 from 2009, which represented about 90% of the peak in 2007, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Monday. The domestic order increased by 20.2% to 22.03 million tonnes for manufacturing while the order for construction increased by only 7.2% to 10.14 million tonnes. The order for export increased by 17.6% to 27.17 million tonnes, which marked the second highest record.

Due to global recession, the carbon steel order was 38 years low at 60.87 million tonnes in 2009. The order in 2010 increased mainly for automobile, electronics and industrial machinery thanks to government stimulus package. The order for export marked the second high after 27.58 million tonnes in 1976.

The export rate increased by 10.1 percentage points to 38.2% of the total carbon steel order in 2010 compared with 2007 level. The rate increased more after Lehman Shock due to strong offshore demand and slow domestic demand.

The carbon steel order in December 2010 hit the monthly record in 2010. The order increased by 3.6% to 6.356 million tonnes in December from a year earlier. The order increased to more than 6 million tonnes for the first time in 8 months topping 6.352 million tonnes in April. The order for export was 2.577 million tonnes in December, which was largest monthly volume in 2010, while the order was 1.9% lower than a year earlier.

The domestic order for construction increased by 20.9% to 918,000 tonnes in December from a year earlier. The building order increased by 41.2% to 523,000 tonnes apparently due to speculative buying before price hike. The order for manufacturing decreased by 4.4% to 1.807 million tonnes.